According to dictionary, Random
means unidentified or unknown or unimportant. But this “random”, sometimes,
that we face in our lives, can impact upon us unknowingly. It can be a long
time before we realize them happening in our life at one point or the other. I
recollect some among the of the randomness I saw during my life so far. There
are more randoms to come in the future. And by random I mean a bunch of random
people I saw sometimes here and there in my hometown, or other towns or cities
I have lived. As I recollect, I have here some of these random people who has affected me in some way, however small it may be but it sure had huge impacts.
The Water Man
I have been seeing this random
man since my childhood days in Guwahati. I have never interacted with him. But
he, without uttering one word, has done something incredible in me. Every day
while I waited for the rickety school bus at the bus stop, I saw this little
man of short stature with huge moustache, carrying two buckets of water held on
his shoulders through a stick and ropes connected to the buckets. He delivers
water to the different shops, hotels, street bhandars, momo house, etc. in my
locality. With only two small buckets he used to walk multiple times to and from
the source of water to his delivery points. Such sheer hard work that I
witnessed of him in my school time shattered me in pieces. I understood that in
front of him, I was nothing. He has got the guts to live the hard way. I have
admired his will for all these years. And he continues to deliver water to these
destinations. After so much time of around 18 years he finally has now managed
to have a cart with a drum of about 100-200 litres and he goes on doing his job
starting from early morning.
The poor parents, the kid and an
infant
This mother is one of the strongest
among the women I have seen. She does a decent business of selling pan, tobacco
and toffees in a small road side stall in Guwahati. She is a mother, whose has
raised two kids, one being an infant, on the roads. She sells items in her
small rack shop for most part of the day, sometimes her husband also participates
in the shop. And these two kids being grown on the streets, have become tougher
through time, nothing affects them. Dust, dirt, rain, nothing. They play on the
footpath and eat on the footpath. A big salute this mom who has willed to take
responsibility to work along her husband and also taking care for two kids even
in such unfavourable and drastic environments she faces daily. She shows that
indeed women are mentally very strong, supporting her family emotionally as
well as financially. Mental strength can cross all barriers of physical
hurdles.
The Two young brothers selling
Assamese pithas on the road
These two brothers run a shop
selling “bhapot diya pitha” or steam cooked rice pancakes. The use a kettle to
provide the necessary heat to cook these delicious food of Assamese people. And
yes they are served along with hot tea!! They are located in a Guwahati area full
of government offices, business centres & random shops. People working in
these establishments flock into their shop to have the pithas. Additionally,
people who have work in these offices, never forget to have their best item
before leaving the premises. They start from morning 5 am till the fag end of
the evening. One washes the dishes, boils the water while other prepares the
pithas and teas. They stay the whole day atop a raised pavement on a small
rivulet under the hot scorching sun. For them this heat of the sun is just a
prick on their skin. They don’t care the heat as they are engaged in selling
the best of the best pithas to all the hungry customers. I don’t know if they
have undergone preliminary or higher education or not at all, but these factors
have not stopped them from doing what they can, to strive a life, they deserve
to live.
The boiled Anda Bhoorji Vendor
I saw this guy when I was posted
as a site engineer in the town of Bharuch, Gujarat around 2013. After returning
from industrial site located around 1 hour of highway journey from Bharuch, I
sometimes would get out of the site vehicle to do a mobile recharge and have
tea. I would stop by his Egg house, a small cart with a big table top to cook
his delicious egg items. I had one item the most common, I asked him the name
of this item, and he would tell me that it is “boiled bhurjee fry”. I would
order a double boiled anda bhurjee. This particular dish he prepared by
splicing boiled eggs in small long slender fragments with a shredding spoon.
The he would put two rounds of oil from a small hemispherical shaped spoons in
his big diameter fry pan, mix masala, onion, chilly etc. and also pour some
water dripped from salad to give a colour to it. He is a simple man and can do
just the best food to make our mouths watery. I would voraciously eat his
dishes after coming from a hard day work. He helped me unknowingly, shed all
the anxieties of the day and go relaxed to my room. I never asked his name nor
interacted him about anything other than ordering food and still he made go
away all the tiredness form me just by serving me his special item.
The old lady selling pan by the
bank
I have been seen this very old
lady in her seventies-eighties in Dibrugarh, Assam. She daily sits in a
makeshift thatched roof with walls of posters and somehow manageable base to
sit upon. A small table of one and a half feet long is all her business
property. People from the nearby bank come from their cabins to chew pan or
have tobacco, bank customers park their vehicles or cycles and have something
from her before entering or exiting the bank. As I don’t eat pan or tobacco I
don’t buy anything from her but daily as I return from the university to my
hostel I never forget to look at her shop. I feel very privileged to see such a
small woman in her grey hair days’ work and not losing her dignity. She still
has got the guts to earn her own food without begging in the streets which many
old poor people are forced to do. After months she has managed cane &
bamboo walls for her shop. She has shown
that old age is not a factor, people if they have will, can work at any age.
The mid aged lady serving momos
She works in a fast food shop in
outskirts of Dibrugarh. It seems that hard work has made her look much older
than her age. She is very short in height, has a face of kindness and does her
job of waiting table very best. She brings me and my friend’s momos and we
happily eat them. I having a more appetite for food, order an extra plate of
momos and she gladly serves me more. She even gives extra soup if needed. When
I see her face, I see the tranquillity in her. The relaxed yet sincerity
towards her job. I don’t know if she is poor or has a family but one thing I know;
she is one of the best professionals I have seen people who serve food to
people without any hesitation or inhospitality. She may not understand the
meaning of professionalism but it doesn’t make her unprofessional because she
is unknowingly doing what she does best. And I am ready to eat momos in the
shop where she serves even after years if I get a chance.
We complain about the excesses of
the Upper Middle class or High Class Society, at our inability to buy expensive
things like them. But, these random people I saw are probably among the
happiest of all. They may be poor trying to meet ends meet but are far happier
than any middle class family. They have almost nothing to lose, they have
survived through all odds and will continue to survive.
But these marginal
persons inspire people like us, the lower middle class, to see that we have far
better lives than them and yet we are far less happy than them. They work the
hardest. We can get inspiration from them to make our lives worthier for the
place we live in.
Photo credits: Pexels
Very aptly said. Someway or the other these people become an important and undeletable part of our lives. We may not be their relatives but the role they play in a day, there mere presence in that instant, in that time and space gives a really great feeling.
ReplyDeletethank you man. their influence is enormous.
DeleteKudos to keen observation man!.. prolific writing.
ReplyDeleteYes these random people indeed sometimes create a permanent room in our hearts. Actually there are two categories of 'random' people I have come across.. one known to us or one who becomes a familiar face for us and the other completely unknown, a stranger in other words.. My domestic help(category 1), a granny by now but her perseverance and working skills, I must say, praiseworthy.. she doesn't even know how to claim a lame excuse! .We sometimes feel like 'not willing to do this today', she never ever felt the same. Such dedicated is she. Work is worship is what I learnt from her.
Category II.. comes with many random people whom I happen to cross only once from an uncle to a young lady.. all have helped without any second thoughts.. Ah! I still remember those faces. I will forever appreciate their well-being.. I wish to help them too in return but this is incredible. I do remember them in my prayers. God bless them.
You are absolutely right. We all have those random persons who continue influence our life and directions. They act as a beacon of light. A ray of hope. And thank you for the compliments. It means a lot to me.
Delete